OG sc question query

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krishhxa: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 50; Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 7:15 amFollowed by: 2 members

by krishhxa » Fri Apr 08, 2016 11:15 am

OG 16 Question.

A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discourage poachers; the question is whether tourists will continue to visit game parks and see rhinoceroses after their horns are trimmed.

While going through the explanation i couldn't understand the following point.Kindly explain the same.

Grammatically the pronoun "their" seems to refer to "tourists" since when a clause starts with a pronoun, the pronoun generally refers to the subject of the preceding clause.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Fri Apr 08, 2016 11:15 am

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ceilidh.erickson: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2095; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pmFollowed by: 247 members; Thanked: 1443 times

by ceilidh.erickson » Fri Apr 08, 2016 11:29 am

Here is the text of the entire question:

A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discourage poachers; the question is whether tourists will continue to visit game parks and see rhinoceroses after their horns are trimmed.

A) whether tourists will continue to visit game parks and see rhinoceroses after their horns are
B) whether tourists will continue to visit game parks to see one once their horns are
C) whether tourists will continue to visit game parks to see rhinoceroses once the animals' horns have been
D) if tourists will continue to visit game parks and see rhinoceroses once the animals' horns are
E) if tourists will continue to visit game parks to see one after the animals' horns have been

Here, the pronoun "their" is ambiguous - it could refer to either "tourists" or "rhinoceroses."

In English, it is most often the case that a pronoun will most likely perform the same function as the noun (antecedent) that it replaced. For example: "Aliya bumped into Patricia, so she apologized." Because "Aliya" was the subject of the first clause, it is natural to assume that the "she," which is also a subject, should refer to Aliya. There is ambiguity, but "Aliya" has more claim to the pronoun "she" than "Patricia."

So in the above sentence, "tourists" are a subject, and "rhinoceroses" an object. Thus, the pronoun "their" in conjunction with the subject "horns" seems to point to "tourists." This is nonsensical.

Don't overthink the pronoun-at-beginning-of-clause thing, though. If you think that there's pronoun ambiguity, CHECK THE ANSWER CHOICES!

- if some have the pronoun, and some revert back to a noun, the GMAT is testing pronoun ambiguity
- if they all have the same pronoun, the GMAT isn't testing that
- if answer choices switch pronouns, it's testing pronoun agreement.

Did that help?

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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krishhxa: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 50; Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 7:15 amFollowed by: 2 members

by krishhxa » Fri Apr 08, 2016 12:29 pm

Hi ceilidh.erickson,

Thank you so much for the prompt reply and making my concept crystal clear. I beleive you answered my previous query as well,it truly helped.Thanks a ton.

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Gaurav Mittal: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 33; Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2016 7:08 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 3 times; GMAT Score:740

by Gaurav Mittal » Sun Apr 10, 2016 10:00 pm

Hi

Can you please specify the correct option here as well. Just wondering if there is any rule around if vs whether?

Thanks
Gaurav

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Mon Apr 11, 2016 3:04 am

Gaurav Mittal wrote:Hi

Can you please specify the correct option here as well. Just wondering if there is any rule around if vs whether?

Thanks
Gaurav

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